If England want to become excellent in Test cricket again, they need to take the World Test Championship (WTC) seriously.
It's plainly obvious for anybody who's aware of the English team that they really don't care about the WTC. Sure, they go through the motions because they are required to as per the agreements they have with other cricket boards, but it is extremely obvious that the English setup only cares about the Ashes. The English setup treats everything as a preparation for the Ashes, which they end up losing anyway in Australia or drawing at home in England. For a side that's so obsessed with the Ashes to the detriment of other test series', they aren't very good at it, which is probably the bigger insult I think to both English and non-English test cricket fans.
The English setup has got to understand that the WTC is here to stay. There is no point in living in some bygone era where it doesn't exist and thus pretend it doesn't matter, especially when the English setup also claims that they are trying to do everything in a modern way and not look at what the old and outdated cricketers from the past did. There is no point in complaining that England has to play both Australia and India in their schedules, because all the "Big Three" have already decided that they should play one of the other "Big Three" members at home and the other away for the purposes of making money. Similarly, complaining about how the WTC concept is confusing is ridiculous, considering that it clearly was not confusing to the 3 separate teams that have already won the WTC.
Finally this argument that the WTC is artificial because it is new is also nonsense because literally every single thing that has ever mattered was new at some point. When the Olympics were first restarted in the late 1800's, I am sure many thought they were just a gimmick that would be forgotten in a few years time. When the Nobel Prize started to be awarded in the early 1900's, I am sure many scientists didn't think it would become the most influential scientific prize later on. You can clearly see that winning the WTC meant a lot to New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Why is it so hard for England to do the same? Hell, the WTC final has been in England for basically all iterations of the WTC. That alone should be enough motivation for England to do well at the WTC and thus by extension test cricket. They should be disappointed in themselves for the lack of effort and planning they have shown over the years.